Gothic Ivories Project | Gabled polyptych (tabernacle) (Front)

Wings, left
Register 1: Visitation. Annunciation.
Register 2: adoring Magi (part of the Adoration of the Magi).
Centre panel
Standing Virgin and Child; Virgin holding a flower in her right hand; angel crowning the Virgin.
Wings, right
Register 1: Nativity; Joseph holding Christ Child.
Register 2: Presentation in the Temple with Joseph; Joseph holding a candlestick and a basket of doves brought as offerings; Christ standing on the altar between the Virgin and Simeon.
Rosettes in the spandrels.

Koechlin 1924: France, end of the 1st half of the 14th century.
Morey 1936: Italian, inspired by French models.
Vitali 1976: France, end of the 1st half of the 14th century.
Martini and Rizzardi 1990: France, 2nd quarter of the 14th century.
Amsterdam 1994: France, c. 1350.
Bologna 2010-2011: France (Paris), 1st quarter of the 14th century.

Attribution
Unknown

Hinges
Two sets of two ring hinges on either side.

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy.

Object Condition
Missing: pinnacles; rosette in one of the gables; colonnettes supporting the central canopy; inner side of both inner wings (upper part); lower part of the inner wing to the left.
Breakages around the hinges.

Provenance
Collection of count Ludovico Savioli: donated by him to the Collezioni Universitarie (no. 335) in 1776; acquired by the Museo Civico di Bologna in 1881.

Bibliography
J. O. Westwood, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum (London, 1876), Appendix, p. 362.
P. Ducati, Guida del Museo Civico di Bologna (Bologna, 1923), p. 181ff.
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français (Paris, 1924), I, pp. 126-128; II, no. 137.
C. R. Morey, Gli oggetti di avorio e di osso del Museo Vaticano (Vatican City, 1936), pp. 31ff, fig. 28.
Lavori in osso e avorio dalla Preistoria al Rococò, dir. by R. Pincelli, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Museo Civico, 20 September-11 October 1959, no. 104, pl. 19.
L. Vitali, Avori gotici francesi (Milan, 1976), no. 22.
Avori bizantini e medievali nel Museo Nazionale di Ravenna, ed. by L. Martini and C. Rizzardi (Ravenna, 1990), p. 121, fig. 48.
A. Marciano, 'Ludovico Savioli e gli avori dei bassi tempi', in Arte a Bologna 2 (1992), pp. 187-202 (p. 190, pl. 9).
A. Marciano, Avori gotici - entry no. 1 (Museo Civico Medievale), Catalogo dei Musei Civici d'Arte Antica di Bologna (unpublished, [c. 1992-1994]).
H. van Os, The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe, 1300-1500, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 1994, p. 76, fig. 32.
Le Madonne di Vitale: Pittura e devozione a Bologna nel Trecento, dir. M. Medica, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Museo Civico Medievale, 2010-2011, no. 11, p. 64.
M. Mignozzi, 'L'altarolo eburneo della cattedrale di Trani: dalla tradizione alla realtá storica', in Arte Medievale, IV serie, anno II (2012), pp. 271-296, fig. 3.
J. Lowden, Medieval and Later Ivories in the Courtauld Gallery (London, 2013), p. 56, in relation to no. 5.

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